ForumsInternet/eCommerce

Definition of: CSS

In web development, Cascading Style Sheets (*CSS*) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.

CSS is used to help readers of web pages to define colors, fonts, layout, and other aspects of document presentation. It is designed primarily to enable the separation of document content (written in HTML or a similar markup language) from document presentation (written in CSS). This separation can improve content accessibility, provide more flexibility and control in the specification of presentation characteristics, and reduce complexity and repetition in the structural content.

Definition of: HTML table

An HTML structure for creating rows and columns. It is used for lists, specifications and other tabular data

CSS - The Designers Choice!

CSS is a language for styling and simple scripting of styles. Browser support for scripting with CSS is very low but it's still powerful & will only get better in time. CSS is comparable to HTML, not tables. I think you want to know if people prefer Web 1.0 vs. Web 2.0 layout & design strategies. Web 2.0 is the only way to go today if you want your site to rank in search engines and also want your site to accessible to all users.

When it comes to using tables within your content, both should be used. It is not practical to use CSS (I assume you're referring to styling layout with DIVs, P, LI, etc. when you say CSS) in every situation. Complex datasheets and detailed tables should certainly remain tables but you should still style it with CSS, not HTML (inline tags, like font tags, etc.). However, when you are creating the layout of your site, lists with hierarchy such as menus or bullets, blocks of data, etc., should use Web 2.0 code today that's styled with CSS is the best way to go. Doing so, will set you higher in search engines, provide you a way to guide spiders through your site's layout, etc. and pages load faster when there's less code. You want the spiders to index your content, not your code. Using tables for the layout of your web site creates far too much code for a spider to parse through. Using a style sheet, the spider sees content, and if you use lists, acronyms, cite tags, etc. properly via CSS, you can get a spider to index every page if they can follow the hierarchy properly. Hope that makes sense.

Using Web 2.0 code & CSS is not something you can have a preference over. It is the standard today, and Web 3.0 is right around the corner. If you're using tables for layout of your site and to control design with inline tags, then you're about 10 years behind the times for a web site.

Lastly, consider this --
less code = less bandwidth per visito r= lower costs = more profits. less code = higher rankings = more unique visitors and search engine traffic = less need to advertise = less cost = more profit. less code = faster pages = happier visitors = customer loyalty = more profit. I could go on and on.

Actually, I hadn't really thought about YOU when I answered the question.

However, now that you point it out, I would say that if you think there are two types of design preferences and one is tables while the other is CSS, then you need to get with the times. You intended to ask if people prefer to design with XHTML w/CSS 2.0 or HTML 4 w/CSS 1 & basic inline tags, right? This was your topic and question, correct? I would bet new designers don't even understand why some designers use tables for layout because it's that old. With any profession, you have to be willing to change and learn new ideas with the times or you'll get left behind.

In 1998, I thought I knew it all. Next, I looked up & it was 2000. I attempted to move a web shop from one host to another and realized no one was in 1998 like me. I had a lot to learn, and by the time I got through some of it, I was already behind by 2 years again.

Looking at your site, I note:

It's made with tables and basic CSS 1.0, as well as HTML 4.0.
Your consulting rates for design are currently an amazing 75% off.

Why make the change...
http://alistapart.com/articles/betterliving

Perhaps, getting up to speed with today's standards will help. It is the best thing you could do for your business today because HTML 5.0 is around the corner (http://alistapart.com/articles/previewofhtml5) & it's amazing! Making the transition will be hard if you didn't take the steps between.

Athough there were not many errors on this site you mentioned there was the following.

XML Parsing Error: junk after document element
Location: http://www.w3.org/2001/03/style/xsv.xsl
Line Number 241, Column 1:<script type="text/javascript">_popupControl();</script>
^

You were not possibly using a Wordpress "Template" for this site.

Or possibly this is not your site, and you do not have any websites, as you are not an actuall web designer. I checked your profile, no website.

I like to use both for my sites. But permanent layout is CSS, and articles are table based

This isn't exactly a one or the other choice in my opinion, you can easily combine the two to have a great effect on the overall control and design of a website. But I guess i prefer CSS because without it HTML would take soooooo much longer to make pretty, and changes would be insanely annoying.